At this point we’re all familiar with the power of a community brought together by a common love or goal. Instagram harnesses the power of community extremely well; people are naturally drawn to images that elicit emotions. And people feel strongly about food! There are two kinds of food pictures on Instagram: those that make us drool, and those that make us gag.

Don’t be *that* Instagrammer. Follow a few simple tips for Instagram to post great food pictures that will have your audience drooling and growing.

Simple Tips for Instagram

1. Post Good Photographs

It’s obvious and yet somehow still needs to be said. The latest mirrorless or DSLR camera is not necessary for great food shots. A clean, up-to-date phone camera lens is more than up for the job. Take a few minutes to plan the photo and its angle(s), take a few shots, make any necessary edits in a 3rd party app, and save.

2. Pick A Style

What’s your game plan? Do you want to be known for posting pretty, pastel pink cake photos, or are bright colours and textures more your thing? Whatever option you choose, make sure it reflects your vision or story and try to keep the style, tone, and edits similar so your followers know what to expect.

3. Think Formatting

Instagram food photos do best when people can see the food or setting (if that’s applicable). The original square format works well, but don’t forget about the extended size too, especially if the photos are in portrait mode. Landscape food images don’t grab the viewer’s attention as well as portrait or square images.

4. Save the Words

Don’t hide food under text! What works for other social media channels (think headlines on Pinterest) won’t fly on Instagram. IG is visual storytelling so let the visuals speak for themselves.

5. Build A Community

Followers need to feel engaged by you and by what’s cooking in your kitchen. For that to happen, they want a sense of community, creative and fun content, useful and trending information or images, and visually appealing photos that draw them in. The more you engage with your followers and with the accounts you follow in a genuine manner, the more your community will grow.

6. Don’t Diss the Tags

As annoying as hashtags are, they’re a valuable tool in your Instagram arsenal and will help you connect with your audience. Use them judiciously, research hashtags appropriate to your subject matter, and find new accounts by following the trail. Include hashtags in the first comment underneath your image so viewers aren’t bogged down by tags in your photo blurb.

7. Be Original

Provide original content without crossover from your other social media channels and let your voice and personality come through. As a general rule, regurgitated content from other sites or channels does not do well. This does not apply to reposting with attribution, which is a legitimate way to spread the love for what you love.

Like all forms of social media, if we’re genuine, it comes through and people are attracted to the end result. Food is more than the ingredients we throw together to create a dish, it’s a means of communicating with family or friends and we can extend that to our communities as well.

In my day job I work behind-the-scenes at YMC, a digital parenting magazine, and besides also writing there, I get opportunities to do some really fun things. A few weeks ago Ukee, our adopted rescue pup (thanks A.R.F. Ontario, we love him!) and I took part in a video for a Purina campaign.

He was a natural, and by natural I mean he was all over the place, licking everything, and curious about the lights and people and WOAH…did you see that ball? Ukee and I had a blast!

Anyway, the video is live so check it out. Each dog and owner combo was on set for 45 minutes, so keep in mind that approximately 44 1/2 minutes of me saying, “Ukee, get back here,” were cut to make room for the video message.

It began when a friend sent me a link for a photography contest that offered two roundtrips flights to Paris. I brushed off the idea and left the contest to the pros. But friends are persistent. She reminded me about it again, I entered, and won. The rules were simple: post a pic of Paris on any social media channel, tag the airline, and write one or two sentences about why the photo represents the city.

I’m from France—I still hold dual citizenship—and I’ve been there many times, but always with my family. When I told a girlfriend we were combining the winning tickets with two others to take the kids on a quick trip she told me I was ridiculous. Two free flights are an unexpected bonus meant for parents to use to run away together, especially when those parents haven’t been away alone for over 16 years. She was right. My husband and I left the kids and the dog and our responsibilities in capable hands and left for Paris.

Instead of spending the entire vacation with family, we planned three nights in the city. I’m more of a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants person so planning meant bookmarking tonnes of sites and talking A LOT about the kind of place we’d like to stay in, what area of the city we wanted to discover, and then waiting until three or four days before departure before actually booking our room. It works for us.

My husband booked our stay with clear direction, “I want a small and charming hotel kind of like Sabarot’s hotel in Saint Pierreville.” No pressure at all. You can keep your grand entrances and marble stairways and chandeliers. I want to sit at quiet tables and talk with the proprietors or just be left alone as I heap fresh apricot jam onto warm baguette at a sunny, corner table. Also, I don’t want crowds or tourists. Good luck with that in Paris, right?

He found l’Hôtel du Temps in Paris (which is everything I pictured without having to say it) in the 9e arrondissement and it now stands out as a favourite address. It’s in a neighbourhood where there are more locals than visitors, and where you’ll find some of the best baguettes in Paris. The man did well.

L’Hôtel du Temps is on a quiet street that angles off from the larger Rue la Fayette and you need to know where to look in order to find it. There are no large signs posted out front to detract from the facade. It’s a clean and refurbished, 23-room hotel that backs onto a small courtyard, with a tiny entrance, a small and neat reception—that’s part of the café/bar area—and an old spiral staircase leading to a former cave/basement, which now has a second life as a cozy nightclub.

In the evenings the bartender serves cocktails at the main floor bar and on the weekend there’s music in the cave. The café area is tiled in green and white—the hotel’s colour scheme— there are old wooden floorboards in the bar, there’s a row of ETs (yes, the alien) peeking at patrons from the top shelf of the bar, and the entire hotel has a decidedly cool, art deco feel. In other words, it’s perfect and I didn’t want to leave.